Not so stupid: AQ Khan doubts N Korea will explode nuclear device
North Korea is a small country, if America drops a single bomb, there won’t be any North Korea on the map: Qadeer
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. PHOTO: AFP
Dr Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan says he doubts North Korea will explode a nuclear device in its current face-off with the United States and South Korea, saying the regime of Kim Jong Un is “not very stupid.”
Khan said he did not think the North Koreans are “trigger happy.”
In an exclusive 30-minute phone interview, Khan told Fox News: “Oh, no, no, no, they (the North Koreans) are not very stupid … few people blow it up and get hype, blow it against proportion. North Korea is such a small country, if America drops a single bomb, there won’t be any North Korea on the map of the world. The North Koreans know it very well and the Americans know it very well, but for sheer propaganda and publicity both play the game.”
North Korea’s last nuclear test on February 11 was described as a miniaturised atomic bomb of six-seven kilotons mounted on a Nodong missile.
“Officially we had a program with them,” Khan said in his interview with Fox. “I went there twice…we had a missile program.”
It has been widely reported Khan visited N Korea more than a dozen times to secure the Nodong missile design, which he renamed as the Ghauri.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2013.